Memoria
by 1458
Summary: There are many bad things about restarting time. The varia would destroy a lot of things again, the guardians would destroy a lot more things again as well, and then there's the training with Reborn. Again. Thank god Tsuna doesn't remember anything. A 'reincarnation' fic in which most of the canon characters have memories. Follows canon until Shimon. 5 OCs.
1. Prologue

Author's Note:

This is a rewrite of Memoria. Plot wise, it remains largely unchanged from my original though I will change a few details (such as Hana's involvement) and add one OC. (5 total, though I am taking liberties of what OC exactly defines. I will elaborate on the OCs when they actually appear ^_^)  
Aside from the changes in some details, I am also splitting Memoria as a whole into two parts/views. That will also be explained when the time is right.  
Special thanks to Animaddict for the continual support and helping me renew my interest in this project :)

-1458

* * *

"Is everyone ready?"

Hayato leapt out of his seat in an instant."Of course Juudaime, I am always ready." In a rare act of assertion, he walked up to Tsuna and engulfed him in a close hug. Letting go, he took a step backwards and knelt in front of him, formally kissing the ring on Vongola Decimo's finger. "I will follow you to another universe and back."

Tsuna smiled. "Thank you, Hayato."

That was when Hayato realized how bold he just acted. Flushing in embarrassment he began to prostrate nonstop, hitting the marble floor so quickly that by the time Tsuna was able to react and attempt to stop him Hayato had already hit the floor at least 5 times.

Takeshi laughed and nudged him aside. "Maa maa, Hayato, stop hogging Tsuna."

Hayato shot up with a start. "What are you-" He stopped his rant upon seeing Takeshi's expression. Grumbling, he obediently went back to his seat.

Engulfing his boss in a hug, Takeshi laughed. "Let's play together again, with everyone else, ne?" He stepped back and imitated Hayato's ritual of respect, kneeling and kissing the ring as well. Straightening, he smiled. "Ready when you are, Tsuna."

Tsuna nodded and was about to reply when he forced into a bone crushing hug. "EXTREME Tsuna! We will meet Kyoko again to the extreme!" Seeing the other two perform the ritual, Ryohei did the same, kneeling and kissing the Vongola ring.

"You will always be my extreme little brother." He muttered softly, surprising everyone else in the room. So Ryohei wasn't a broken speaker constantly turned on- "LET'S DO THIS TO THE EXTREME TSUNA!" Never mind.

Ryohei pumped his fist in the air. "OH! AND YOU NEED TO EXTREMELY JOIN THE EXTREME BOXING CLUB-"

Lambo pushed Ryohei away after covering his mouth. "Vongola, make sure you buy me double the grape candy this time!" He paused and sniffled. "…To-ler-ate…" He couldn't. Lambo tackled Tsuna to the floor, silently crying into Tsuna's white cape, mumbling Tsuna's name repeatedly, like it was a long chant. He had intended to just hug his brotherly figure but was unable to control his strength and contain his tears. "Tsuna-nii…"

The cow and omnivore duo were dragged to their feet by the mighty skylark, who, in a rare occurrence, had hidden his emotions so well that even Tsuna's hyper intuition couldn't read them clearly. Lambo instantly flashed Kyoya a glare. Amused at the once-in-a-lifetime show of defiance, Kyoya stepped away and let Lambo finish.

Lambo quickly separated himself from Tsuna and performed the ritual as well, kneeling and kissing the ring, before he stood up and hugged his brother once more. Letting go, he stuck his tongue childishly at Kyoya and quickly ducked behind I-pin, just in case.

Kyoya rolled his eyes and walked up to his everyone-but-himself-proclaimed boss. Ruffling his hair, he stepped back and knelt before him, just because it was within discipline to follow the protocol (not that Tsuna had actually wanted the protocol in the first place, it was something Reborn made them do), and kissed the ring.

Standing up, Kyoya encircled Tsuna with an arm and tapped his head on Tsuna's shoulder. The closest he will actually get to hugging the omnivore in public, especially in front of the pineapple herbivore. Speaking of the pineapple…

"Kufufufufu… oya oya, the birdie is such a sweetie~" The pineapple was being irritating as always. Kyoya glared but let it go when he felt Tsuna lay a hand on his arm. He grunted and walked off, wanting to be as far away from the pineapple as possible.

Tsuna smiled and shook his head wearily at the behaviour before he felt a set of arms snaking around him. "Kufufufu... fufufufufufufu…" Whatever Mukuro wanted to say, he found himself unable to voice out and settled on giving 'kufufu's instead. If there was a kufufu interpreter, they would translate it into something along the lines of 'Thank you for everything'.

Though Tsuna could not understand the kufufu's at the slightest, even after listening to them for so many years, he understood the gist of what Mukuro was trying to convey. Sighing happily, he patted Mukuro's back in attempts to comfort him.

"Sawada Tsuanyoshi, I have not given up on possessing your body."

Tsuna found himself still smiling regardless. Really, after so many years of saying the same thing it was an empty threat at worst.

Stepping back, Mukuro gave a very Mukuro-like smile, creepy and mysterious. After years of experience from living with him for so long, Tsuna was able to understand that the smile was a facade, merely a way for Mukuro to hide his true feelings. "Kufufu… the mafia and their rituals. They sure know how to act pointlessly." Even so, Mukuro knelt down and kissed the ring. Standing up, he leaned into Tsuna's personal bubble…

And was pushed aside by Chrome. "I'm sorry, Mukuro-sama, but I want some time with Bossu as well." Chrome gave Tsuna a hug, crying slightly into his shoulder. "Thank you for everything." Chrome herself did not understand Mukuro's kufufu language. She was just capable of voicing out her thoughts better than Mukuro. Stepping back and wiping a stray tear off her cheek, she knelt down and kissed the ring. Chrome stood up and smiled at Tsuna before leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. Tsuna smiled back and returned the gesture.

"Hey hey, let's do that." Takeshi cut in, one hand grasping Hayato and one on Lambo.

"I EXTREMELY AGREE. COME ON HIBARI, PINEAPPLE." Ryohei grabbed their arms in a killer grip before they could sneak off.

Tsuna could only sigh. "How old do you think we are..." He offered his hand to Chrome, who took it gracefully. The two of them joined the circle of guardians.

"ALRIGHT! 3 ...2 ...1 ...VONGOLA FIGHT!" "EXTREME!"

"... Are you monkeys 14?" Hana furrowed her eyebrows, watching as they disbanded. "Oi Tsuna. A word."

Tsuna walked over to her, ignoring the fact that half his guardians were trying to beat up the other half for putting them through such a humiliating experience. "Yes, Hana?"

"You're going to set everything back to the beginning, right?"

"Yes, if all goes well."

Hana snorted. "What's with that response? Anticipating failure?"

"Of course not." He paused, looking grim. "This is an all or nothing operation. I can't fail."

"Good. Keep that attitude." Hana paused and dropped to one knee, kissing the Vongola ring on a stunned Tsuna's finger. "Leave the rest to the other monkeys and myself. I'll clean up for you if you are incapable of doing so."

Tsuna's eyes had widened considerably. "I... Well... Thank you, Hana."

Hana shook her head slightly and hugged him briefly. "Thank me by succeeding."

The two of them turned to the loud sniffling noises next to them. Shoichi was on the ground, clutching his stomach and crying uncontrollably at the same time. The tears just kind of happened. Tsuna knelt down and enclosed Shoichi in a hug, rubbing circles at his back. "It's alright, Shoichi. Everything will be fine."

Shoichi rambled on about something incoherent, clutching Tsuna's suit tightly in his fists like a lifeline.

"Vongola." Tsuna glanced up at Spanner, who was holding an unwrapped spannerpop. The candy found itself inside Shoichi's mouth less than a second after. Spanner ruffled both boys' heads before giving Tsuna a brief hug and successfully prying Shoichi off his boss. The sudden intrusion of the candy in Shoichi's mouth had shocked his tears away and help him regain his composure.

The three of them stood up, Shoichi giving Tsuna an apologetic look. Tsuna smiled back, gesturing it was fine.

The inventor duo shared a look before they both knelt simultaneously. Shoichi took out the spannerpop and kissed the ring before passing the hand to Spanner, who did the same.

Tsuna blinked twice before he registered what they had just done. "Hie! You didn't need to do that-"

"Tsunayoshi-kun, we are part of Vongola." Shoichi clasped his hands on Tsuna's shoulders and sniffled.

Spanner shrugged. "It was fun." Ruffling Tsuna's hair once more, Spanner dragged Shoichi away before he burst into tears again.

"Brat."

Tsuna turned and cocked his head slightly to the side with a smile. "Xanxus?"

"…" Xanxus huffed. He grabbed Tsuna's shoulder and crashed their bodies together. Tsuna briefly wondered if Xanxus knew the difference between a hug and a body slam. "The next time I see you, I will shoot you."

Since when have you not? Tsuna inwardly screamed. He sighed. At least Xanxus was being kind enough to warn him…?

Xanxus clicked his tongue, annoyed that he was unable to get Tsuna annoyed. Stepping back, he suddenly smirked, idea forming in his head. Xanxus reached out to Tsuna's right hand and brought it to his face. He kissed the ring and let go of the hand, pleased with Tsuna's visible look of irritation.

"What was that for?"

Knowing how exactly to push Tsuna's buttons, Xanxus' smirk grew. "Protocol."

"…" The look of exasperation on Tsuna's face reminded Xanxus of why he like to annoy the tenth so much. "Since when did you follow protocol?" Tsuna deadpanned, a visible tick mark slowly forming on his head.

Xanxus couldn't hold it in anymore. He barked with laughter. Amused, he ruffled Tsuna's hair. "Whenever I want, brat." Xanxus gave a solemn expression as he reorganized Tsuna's hair the best he could (not that it was necessary anyways. Technically speaking, ruffling his hair and straightening it were basically the same thing.) "Don't push yourself too hard."

Tsuna nodded. "I know."

The look on Xanxus' face showed that he evidently did not believe him but dropped the subject when he felt someone tugging on his sleeve.

Enma's piercing red eyes met Xanxus' as they had a short staring (glaring) contest. It ended with Xanxus backing down. He already got to see something good from Tsuna today, he can spare the earth trash some slack.

Tsuna inwardly sweat dropped at the two's antics, watching Enma glare at Xanxus once more before turning to him. In an instant, Enma's persona flipped. "Tsuna-kun…" Eyes watering slightly, Enma gently hugged Tsuna, who returned it with the same amount of warmth. "You'll be my best friend forever no matter where we are right?"

Humming, Tsuna smiled. "Of course, as you are mine."

Enma returned the smile and stepped back. He knelt in front of Tsuna and kissed the Vongola ring. Standing up, he took in Tsuna's surprised look with a smile.

Tsuna regained his composure quickly. "You don't need to do that you know."

Enma shook his head, momentarily glaring at Xanxus' loud amused huff. "The Shimon will continue to serve Vongola in the shadows." Raising a hand above his heart, Enma gave Tsuna a serene smile. "We are Vongola."

"Tsunayoshi-dono, I as well." Basil stepped in from the side, cutting in front of a slightly annoyed Enma, he dropped to a single knee and bowed. "CEDEF or not, expect myself to serve thou eternally."

"Thank you Basil." Tsuna paused, seeing Basil not move from his position. "Basil?"

"Tsunayoshi-dono, art thou permit me to grace thy heirloom with respect?"

Tsuna blinked. What? He glanced at his hand and the Vongola ring with furrowed eyebrows. Um…

At Basil's kicked puppy look, Tsuna hesitantly brought his hand near Basil's face. Basil flashed a huge smile and immediately kissed the ring. Bowing from his position once more, Basil stood up without incidence, giving Tsuna an embrace before moving aside. Tsuna scratched his face, uncertain of what just happened.

"LIL BROOOO" Seeing Tsuna free, Dino flew (tripped) across the room and gave Tsuna a flying hug to the ground. "Tsunaaaa, I'm going to miss you soo much." Standing up, Dino rubbed his cheek against Tsuna's with affection.

Tsuna laughed at Dino's antics as he halfheartedly tried to get his self-proclaimed brother off before his suit gotten anymore crumpled. Then again, after all the hugs and tears, he doubt that Dino was going to make it any worse-

There was a loud tear sound as Dino tripped on something (his foot) and sent Tsuna back onto the ground. Tsuna inwardly groaned. He just had to jinx himself, didn't he. Assessing the damage and ignoring the background events behind him (consisting of Dino apologizing sheepishly and a few irritated guardians (Hayato and Kyoya) going after him) Tsuna realized that a seam had snapped but the damage wasn't very visible. Well it was not like this suit was going to be seen outside this room anyways. Shrugging, Tsuna mentally waved it off and turned in time to see Dino crash into him yet again and send him back to the ground.

Dino clutched onto him like a baby, mumbling under his breath. Hyper intuition sensing something, Tsuna looked up at his angry guardians and gestured them off. Hayato clicked his tongue as he walked away while Kyoya's grip on his tonfa tightened and he settled on attacking Mukuro instead.

"Dino-san…"

"I'm sorry Tsuna… I'm such a mess without all of them… Sorry for all of… that…"

Tsuna patted Dino gently. "It's fine. I would have done the same."

Dino shook his head. "No… you wouldn't have. You would have blamed everything on yourself, unlike me." He pulled away from Tsuna and clumsily wiped his face with his sleeves. "You are a great boss, Tsuna."

"Thank you." Tsuna let Dino lead him to his feet, only to have Dino kneel in front of him seconds after. Sighing, Tsuna watched as Dino kiss his ring. "You too?"

"Hehe." Dino rose from the ground and gave a childish grin. "I'm family too, aren't I?"

Sighing again, though this time gently with a smile, Tsuna nodded. "Of course."

"TSU-KUUUN" Byakuran dragged Tsuna away from the horse while still hovering in the air, flapping his wings occasionally to maintain his elevation.

"Yes, Shiro-chan?"

"Marshmallow?" Byakuran presented Tsuna with a marshmallow before he resumed hugging him.

"Thank you I guess." Eating the marshmallow, Tsuna shifted his head so he could see Byakuran's face. "How's Yuni?"

Byakuran buried his face into Tsuna's shoulder even further as he dragged Tsuna towards the Sky arcobaleno. "Yuni-chan is fine."

"That's good…" Tsuna blinked as Byakuran suddenly halted. "Shiro-chan?"

Letting go, Byakuran flew over Tsuna and landed in front of him with a mischievous smile. Tsuna groaned as he realized why Byakuran wanted.

"… You too?"

"Of course~ I need to show my boss proper respect after all." He knelt down before Tsuna.

"Boss? …Since when was I your boss?" Tsuna rubbed his temple to try to sooth out his aching head, unintentionally using his right hand. Taking it as a challenge, Byakuran flew up, still in kneeling posture, and began to attack Tsuna. And that was how Tsuna found himself in a losing battle over his hand.

"… How did I lose to someone over my own hand…?" Tsuna decided to just give up on looking for a logical explanation.

Byakuran childishly clutched Tsuna's hand like it was a prize, which it was in all respects to this situation, as he descended back to the floor to perform the ritual. How he managed to retain his kneeling posture throughout the entire event was something Tsuna did not even bother to think about. He has seen weirder stuff before. This was relatively normal.

Standing up, for once not flying, Byakuran hugged Tsuna again while dragging him off to Yuni.

"Byaku-nii... Tsu-nii..."

Tsuna nudged Byakuran off of him, who let go without any resistance, and hugged the young sky. "Yuni... Everything will be alright soon. Think of everything as a bad nightmare..." He paused, realizing that everything Yuni had put the effort to get, the relations she had worked so hard to achieve, would now be dissolved into a far away memory.

Yuni hugged him back, clutching him like a teddy bear. "I'll be alright, Tsu-nii. I have been selfish enough. It doesn't matter if it will be different next time, as long as they are alive again..."

"We'll be with you, Yuni-chan~" Byakuran enclosed his arms around both skies, wings fluttering happily as he attempted to squeeze the living daylights out of both Tsuna and Yuni at once. Tsuna sighed in exasperation at Byakuran's antics while Yuni giggled.

"Of course, you two will always be with me."

"Leaving me out?"

Tsuna stiffened while Yuni giggled some more. Byakuran let go of the two and flew off to play with Shoichi.

"Uncle Reborn."

Reborn patted Yuni's shoulder. "Leave it to Dame-Tsuna, Yuni, he will fix everything."

Groaning, Tsuna rubbed his temple, headache already forming. "Thank you for the pressure, Reborn." He found his head at the end of Reborn's fist. "Oww..."

"Planning to fail, dame-Tsuna?"

"Of course not." Tsuna's eyes flashed orange with resolve. "I will succeed."

"Then it will be fine. And how many people are you planning to hug before you finally get going?" Reborn hugged Tsuna briefly before ruffling his hair. "Make that your last. We are running out of time." Suddenly, he paused, lightbulb flashing in his head. Giving a smirk, Reborn knelt down before Tsuna.

"...Reborn...?" Tsuna watched as he took out some cleaning alcohol and a handkerchief to clean the ring. Satisfied with his work, Reborn promptly kissed it and stood up, still smirking.

"What, dame-Tsuna? I am not planning to share an indirect kiss with half the people in the room."

"Um, but didn't you just say to not waste any more time-"

"OI Reborn, kora, you hypocrite!" Colonello yelled from the side, storming forward to give Reborn a piece of his mind. Reborn ignored him, instead focusing on the rest of the room. Growing annoyed at the increasing noise level, he shot at the ceiling to bring order to the room. There was pure silence in an instant.

Staring at the bullet hole and worried that it might have attracted unwanted attention, Tsuna turned to Reborn. "Um..."

Reborn ruffled his hair. "Just get on with it, dame-Tsuna." He pushed Tsuna onto the head seat.

Tsuna scanned the large empty room, gaze lingering on each of the members of his dear family and friends as he took in their faces and emotions. Making a special note to himself to not look at the door longer than necessary, less they realize what was approaching, he gave them all a melancholic smile and turned to Kawahira. "I shall begin then."

Kawahira nodded. "The Trinisette will respond to your call."

Tsuna nodded back and closed his eyes, focusing on his resolve. With his hands in a posture vaguely similar to a prayer, bright orange flames flowed out of himself and began spreading to the entire room. The ultimate dying will, as he recalled it being called. Flames made of hope, hope for a better time and future.

Byakuran and Yuni responded to his flames. Bursting into flames themselves, they fed their flames to Tsuna, filling the entire room with a sea of orange warmth. The rest of the Arcobaleno, funeral wreaths and Vongola guardians followed soon after, the colours of their flames harmonizing with the sky.

"When I finish unleashing the Trinisette, time will travel back to when you were born. Your soul will merge with the one in the past; memories will remain." Tsuna paused, checking to make sure everyone understood.

"Your physical capabilities will be reset to that of when you were born." He looked at his guardians. "Take the time to retrain yourself. Don't push your limits too far." He received half-hearted agreements at best.

"You are free to change whatever you want to change. However, keep in mind that whatever changes you make will affect the 'future' you expect." He looked at the Varia this time. They averted from his gaze, in attempt to hide their plans of potential mass destruction. Tsuna sighed and shook his head in exasperation.

"In relation to my role as the insinuator of the Trinisette, I will be born differently. My appearance will change. I am vaguely aware of what the change is, but I will keep it a surprise for the rest of you." He smiled playfully.

"Arrivederci, my dear famiglia." Tsuna concentrated the built up flames and watched his family and friends disappear slowly, being engulfed in a burst of sky flames one by one, concentrating till the last burst of flame disappeared.

Tsuna looked around the empty room, happy that he was able to make it in time to at least send his loved ones to safety. Perhaps his luck hasn't run out yet after all. Taking a deep breath, his sky flames retracted back into himself. The ritual was almost complete-

**Bang**.

The door was hastily slammed open. The young man's eyes quickly scanned the room, giving a wide grin as he spotted Tsuna.

"Long time no see, Vongola Decimo, leader of the mafia."

Tsuna gazed at his pocket watch, he only needed 20 more seconds to succeed. "Sorte."

"Aren't you going to ask me how I found your location?" Sorte's shoes clacked loudly against the floor as he made his way to Tsuna. "Luck. Something that my dear lady luck has taken from you and given to me." He stopped right in front of the Don, arm's length away. "Now return him to me."

10 seconds left.

Tsuna glared at him, offended. "He neither belongs to you nor me. Don't speak of him like he's an object."

"You only think that because you haven't realized his full potential." Sorte played with his pressed 4-leafed clover locket with his left hand.

6 seconds.

"Well that's to be expected of someone known as 'dame-Tsuna'."

4.

Sorte gave a gleeful smile and that was when Tsuna suddenly realized the pain in his chest. "Not that it matters now. Nothing will stand between me and my lady luck." Sorte's grip on the knife tightened as he slowly pulled it out, prepared for a second stab if necessary.

Tsuna was rapidly loosing consciousness. How much more time did he have-

A final wave of blinding sky flames left the room empty. The bloody knife bounced off the ground with a sharp clang before losing momentum, staining the ground red.

...

_"…I want to see my precious family again…"_

* * *

_"Sawada Tsunayoshi has no memories. Follow the original timeline."_


	2. DA I -1- Game Start

Vongola Nono looked at the detailed letter in his hand, shaking his head gently with exasperation. Reborn is really eager to train this Sawada Tsunayoshi. Timoteo didn't even send any orders to tutor the boy yet. Well, it was very much like Reborn to act ahead. Perhaps too much.

...

Really, what happened to following the original timeline...

Reborn announced his departure to Japan the moment Sawada Tsunayoshi started middle school.

* * *

"Reborn-san has left already?" Hayato stared at the letter (more like a note) in front of him, as if asking it for clarification.

"Are you going to leave?"

He glanced at her before nodding. "Yeah. Juudaime needs me... I'll come back as soon as I can and I'll call you every week."

"Thank you but don't worry, I will be fine. Take your time with your precious friend."

Hayato looked conflicted. "I-I will see if you can come to Namimori as well. I'm sure Juudaime would love to meet you… if he remembered… B-but either way, I'm sure he would still really want to meet you."

He was patted on the head. "I would love to meet him too. I'll see if I can go visit Namimori after you get settled down. I do really want to see that place."

"Yeah... See you soon. Love you."

…

"Reborn is going to Tsuna-nii." Lambo looked at the memo and smiled. Time to leave for Namimori. Oh but first, steal the 10 year bazooka and lots of grenades, rocket launchers and grape candy.

Gyahaha, prepare yourself Tsuna-nii, Lambo-san is coming home.

…

"Kufufufufufu… oya oya, the Arcobaleno is early." Mukuro turned to the calendar on the wall.

"Mukuro-sama, are we going to start earlier?" Chikusa pushed his glasses up.

"Kufufufu… but of course. I will contact Chrome. Go ask Lancia-senpai to book a flight to Namimori 3 weeks from now. We need to contact the Vendice as well." Ken followed Chikusa out, leaving Mukuro alone in the dark room.

Leaning back on the couch, Mukuro stared at the small crack on the ceiling, exposing the bright blue sky. He lifted his hand towards the light and abruptly clenched it while giving a creepy smirk. The hell rings glowed eerily.

"Kufufu... Sawada Tsunayoshi... will you continue to fly free? Or will you fall into the darkness..." The atmosphere around Mukuro distorted slightly as he struggled to contain himself. "Then again, he was trained by that sadistic brute..." The air cleared, as if nothing had happened in the first place. "Kufufu... prepare yourself, Sawada Tsunayoshi, or I will do it for you."

…

"Reborn left." Mammon floated over and handed Xanxus the piece of paper.

"That Hitman is pretty impatient." Xanxus glanced over the letter in amusement.

"VOOOIIII Like you can talk, shitty boss." A glass was thrown at Squalo's direction.

"Ushishishi, the prince can play with the peasants soon."

"Bel-senpai has creepy hobbies." Fran's expression did not even twitch as a series of knives were plunged into his back. "Ah. That means that I would see Shishou soon. Yay."

"Mou Fran-chan, you should be happier about seeing all of those cuties." Lussuria twirled. "I wonder how Ryohei-chan is doing~"

"...Tsu'..."

Levi snorted. "We don't need useless trash that can't even remember. Boss, I-"

A wide blast of wrath flames destroyed the wall behind the varia members, effectively catching all of their attention. "Trash. We will go after the CEDEF trash makes his move."

Xanxus picked up a glass of wine and took a large sip. Closing his eyes, he grumbled inwardly. Because some stupid brat managed to lose his memories, Xanxus can't fulfill his promise of shooting him anymore. His hands tightened around the glass. Stupid brat.

…

"Hmm? Reborn-kun left? He must really miss Tsu-kun." Byakuran popped a marshmallow in his mouth. He eyed his funeral wreaths. "As much as I want to go play with Tsu-kun as well, Sho-chan will get mad. We'll wait until Sho-chan contacts us." Giving a lazy wave, he dismissed his wreaths, watching them file out of the room.

Byakuran raised a marshmallow in front of his face with two fingers. "Sawada Tsunayoshi." The marshmallow was engulfed with destructive sky flames. "I hope you don't bore me."

Taking a bite out of the marshmallow, Byakuran frowned. "Aww... it's too burnt."

…

"Reborn-san has left for Namimori." Emma looked at the message in confusion. "Isn't he early? I remember Tsuna-kun saying that Reborn-san had started tutoring him at the start of summer…"

"Does it matter?" Adelheid asked.

"Err… well… when do we go to Namimori?"

"We'll wait for Vongola to tell us, like they did before."

Emma nodded. It seems that he will still need to wait for a while. Turning to the window, he looked out at the clear blue sky.

"...I miss you..."

…

"Bermuda-sama, from the current sun arcobaleno." Jager handed Bermuda the unsealed envelope. "...Is this written in some form of code?"

Scanning the scrap of paper's contents, Bermuda chuckled. "Negative. The message is to be read as is." He lifted his head slightly to meet Jager's eyes under the bandages. "Do not spare it a second thought, it will remain irrelevant for a period of time."

Confused but not the one to question his master, Jager bowed before dissolving into the darkness and out of the room.

"Mukuro-kun's call is due to arrive..." Glancing at the letter one last time, Bermuda burned it with his black flames of night. "A code...? Perhaps it can be perceived as such."

_"Off to train dame-Tsuna. You know what to do. -Reborn"_

…

"Reborn has arrived…"

"Hn… the baby is early."

"Maa maa, the kid must really miss us."

"Ano… Mukuro-sama said Kokuyo will be arriving in 3 weeks."

"… Waah. Already? Ow… my stomach…"

"What do we do?"

"… Wait for him to approach first. Reborn is very eager, he headed straight for the Sawada Residence without surveying the rest of Namimori."

"He's checking if Tsuna really has no memories?"

"Probably. And also checking what his current ability level is."

They heard a mutter of "still a herbivore".

"Cloud-san, won't it be easier for him to stop being a herbivore now that Reborn-san is here?"

Hibari Kyoya gave a grunt that expressed his indifference.

...

It has finally started.

* * *

_"Sawada Tsunayoshi has no memories. Follow the original timeline."_

Reborn was spying on Sawada Tsunayoshi from a tree near his room. It was not hard to determine that Dame-Tsuna really had no memories. Aside from having no memories, he also had his flames and hyper intuition sealed. Reborn wasn't even sure what Tsuna's flames currently look liked. Well, it does not matter for the world's best hitman. Reborn succeeded in training Tsuna once (not that he will ever tell him), so he can do it again.

Unlike the others, Reborn was aware of what changes Tsuna was expecting in his appearance. Loss of pigment. To be more specific, lighter colouring of his skin, eyes, hair and such. This Tsuna had a light dirty blond shade of hair, a bit browner than Basil's hair, and light brown eyes, which was exactly what Reborn anticipated. However, his features themselves were quite different from the one he remembers. Sawada Tsunayoshi bears more resemblance to his father rather than his mother. While it was a bit annoying that dame-Tsuna looked more like that stupid Iemitsu, Reborn decided to approach Tsuna as unbiased as he could possibly be. The core is what matters, after all.

Watching Tsuna leave the house very early in the morning (Reborn was slightly impressed that the 14 year old was able to get up so early in the first place, so much unlike his past self), Reborn made a split decision to follow him, putting the flyer into the mailbox before trailing him from afar. Read stalk. Reborn wanted a grasp of Tsuna's current life after all.

…

All in all, it was pretty uneventful. Reborn watched Tsuna go on an extreme jog with Sasagawa Ryohei, chat with Sasagawa Kyoko, greet Hibari Kyoya and do homework with Yamamoto Takeshi at Takesushi. The three guardians silently acknowledged Reborn, who returned the gesture. Everything within Reborn's expectations…

"Oi monkey."

Tsuna turned around and gave a wave. "Good afternoon, Hana-san."

Hana shrugged. "You too. Care to do me a favour?"

Walking towards her, Tsuna nodded. "What favour?"

Rather than answering, Hana led Tsuna towards her house, which was beside the park, and gestured the tree in her yard with kids underneath it jumping up and down. "Get that ball down for those monkeys so they can shut up. Kids, so annoying."

"Ok." Putting his bag on the ground, Tsuna did a brief stretch and climbed up the tree nimbly. Reaching the branch with the ball, he looked down. "Is this your ball?"

"Yes!" The kids below waved their arms up animatedly. The ball was tossed towards them. "Thank you onii-san!"

"No problem." Tsuna called, watching Hana shoo the kids off now that they had their ball. After shuffling himself on the branch for better footing, Tsuna flipped and landed perfectly on the ground. "Anything else, Hana-san?"

"Nah, thanks."

"Ok, see you tomorrow." Tsuna waved at her before walking out of the park.

Hana waved back once before shifting her attention to a different tree. "When did you arrive?"

Reborn jumped down in front of her. "This morning."

"Well someone's eager. How early are you, half a year?"

Pointedly ignoring the question, Reborn made an inquiry of his own. "Dame-Tsuna has been trained, hasn't he."

Hana shrugged. "I guess. I don't spend my time stalking Sawada, unlike some people." She moved some hair behind her ear. "Can't you tell by what happened just now?"

"Just wanted to check." By watching Tsuna climb the tree and flip down, it was obvious that all three of the future guardians had trained Tsuna to some extent, especially Hibari. Tsuna moved like a hybrid between Kyoya and Tsuna, with a bit of Takeshi's footwork and Ryohei's style of optimizing his arm muscles. Reborn was content. Perhaps it would be easier to train Tsuna this time.

Satisfied with his analysis, Reborn tipped his fedora in greeting before disappearing out of sight. Hana sighed.

"Here we go again…"

* * *

Tsuna stared at the bento box on the table for a full 10 seconds.

"Eh! Toku-nee was here?" he cried.

Sawada Nana picked up the box and spread the contents out.

"You just missed her, Tsu-kun. Ara, To-chan made some western sweets." She looked at recipe that came with the sweets with a smile. They seemed simple enough to make.

"Oh right, Tsu-kun, a flyer came in the mail this morning. To-chan showed me." She handed the flyer to Tsuna.

"We will raise your kid to be the new leader of the next generation. Grades and subject don't matter. -Reborn"

Tsuna stared incredulously at the flyer. "Kaa-san. It must be a scam."

"Ara, but To-chan suggested I call them, so I did. All they need is a place to stay and food to eat. Isn't that wonderful?"

Tsuna blinked. "Toku-nee suggested it? But Hibari-niisan is enough of a tutor!" More than enough.

"Kyoya-kun is in his last year of middle school right? He will be too busy with exams to tutor you."

Tsuna was about to protest, reasoning that exams would be the least of Kyoya's worries, if a worry at all, but was interrupted by a high pitched squeak.

"Ciaossu."

Both Sawadas looked down to the source of the voice.

"I am Reborn, the home tutor."

There was a moment of silence as both Sawadas processed what the baby just said.

Nana smiled and straightened her apron. "Ara, such a young tutor. You must be a genius, nee? Please take care of Tsu-kun~" She walked into the kitchen, humming merrily. It's been a while since she had a guest. She would need to cook an extra portion tonight.

Tsuna was still stunned. Oh my god… it can't be…

Reborn kicked him in the stomach. …Curse his life, it was. Another Hibari-niisan.

"Oww…" Tsuna cried. He looked at Reborn. "How old are you?"

Reborn blinked at the question and lifted his hand. "5."

Tsuna nodded, not particularly fazed. "Wow…"

"Why aren't you surprised?" Tsuna's lack of reaction was starting to bother Reborn. Had the guardians told Tsuna about the Arcobaleno?

"Well… Hibari-niisan was both the strongest and one of the smartest at the age of 5…" Actually it was at the age of 3, not that Tsuna really cared at that point. What's the difference anyways?

Reborn nodded in realization. Tsuna must be quite close with Hibari. But damn, Hibari took away Reborn's fun. Well, no matter, Reborn still had some tricks up his sleeves. Time to pull out the big guns.

He pulled out a gun and aimed it at Tsuna. "My true line of work is assassination. I will train you into becoming a mafia boss."

That caused a satisfying reaction. "Wait, what? Are you serious? Is that a toy? Wait of course its not a toy. If you are anything like Hibari-niisan it is definitely not a toy…" Tsuna rambled on, eyes already scanning for escape routes.

Finding full enjoyment out of Tsuna's reaction, Reborn smirked. Tsuna shuddered, questioning why life was so cruel to him. "Want me to shoot you once?"

Tsuna flailed.

Reborn put away his gun. "I will have plenty of fun training you, Dame-Tsuna." And then he left to eat.

Let the fun and games begin.

…

That night, Tsuna suffered a full 14 hours of Reborn.


	3. DA I -2- Hibari

"Why are you following me?" Tsuna loudly complained. He barely had any sleep because of the crazy baby's traps around his bed. Furthermore, he was woken up 5 minutes earlier than usual courtesy of a huge green mallet. Today was one of the rare days he had the opportunity to sleep in too… Hopefully the baby would leave him alone tomorrow-

"I'm here to train you to become a mafia boss." Said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Tsuna gave a loud sigh. Here we go again. "Why would I even want to be a mafia boss?" How many times had they had this conversation since last night?!

"It's not a matter of want. You will be a mafia boss." This would be the 7th time.

Tsuna was about to protest some more, recreating the argument they had last night again, when he saw Sasagawa Kyoko. "Good morning, Kyoko-chan. Did onii-san leave for his boxing tournament already?"

"Good morning, Tsuna-kun. Yes, he left a few hours ago… " She looked at the incarnation of Satan standing on the wall and smiled. "Who is this cute baby?"

"Ciaossu. I am Reborn, a hitman." A perfectly normal profession for a baby. At this point, Tsuna didn't care anymore. The insane baby should do whatever he wants to do and leave him alone. Tsuna kicked a stray pebble on the ground, grumbling inwardly. How could he just miss seeing Toku-nee? He would usually return home in time to at least greet her...

"You're a hitman? Wow, that's amazing!" Kyoko paused and frowned slightly, Tsuna's behaviour catching her attention. "…Tsuna-kun, are you sad about something?"

Tsuna blinked and instantly shook his head rapidly, waving his hands as well as if to persuade her even more . "No, no. I'm fine, Kyoko-chan."

Kyoko continued to study Tsuna before finally nodding. "Alright. Be sure to tell me if something is wrong, ok? I need to go on ahead, Kaichou needs help packing… See you in class, Tsuna-kun." She left for school after giving a cheerful wave.

Reborn jumped in front of Tsuna. "You are sad about something?"

"Eh? No I'm not. Kyoko-chan worries too much… I'm fine…" he trailed off.

Reborn narrowed his eyes. "You regret something."

Tsuna looked down at Reborn in surprise. "Wha-"

"Go resolve your regrets with your dying will." He shot Tsuna without any warning. A very Xanxus-like move.

"REBORN! GO GREET TOKU-NEE WITH MY DYING WILL!" All of Tsuna's clothes ripped save his boxers and a chained locket necklace. He ran in that state to school.

Reborn followed quickly behind, wondering who this 'Toku-nee' was.

...

Tsuna ran on a straight path to the school, dashing right past Kyoko, who was chatting with a student council committee member while a curious (stalkerish) club leader waited for his chance to talk to the cute first year.

"Tsuna-kun?" Kyoko turned to Tsuna's back, worried, and began chasing after him. Mochida Kensuke was left alone in the school yard, his attempt of even greeting Kyoko ending in a failure before he had the chance to.

In the mean time, Kyoko had encountered Takeshi, who stopped her. "Maa maa, Kyoko-chan, Tsuna will be fine. He's headed to the disciplinary office."

Kyoko nodded in understanding and headed into the school with Takeshi.

* * *

Tsuna slammed the door of the reception room open. Both occupants in the room stared at him. He ran up to one of them. "TOKU-NEE, I…" the flame on his forehead extinguished.

There was an awkward moment of silence.

"Herbivore." Kyoya walked up to Tsuna, both tonfas already out and gleaming in the sunlight, "For not following the dress code, I will bite you to death."

"…Kyoya, let Tsuna get dressed first, alright?" Tomiko requested, already opening a nearby closet to find Tsuna a spare uniform.

For the first time in Tsuna's life, he had never been more glad that Toku-nee's hair and surgical mask covered most of her face. He did not want to know what her expression was right now. The yellow canary on her shoulder had turned his head away from Tsuna's view, as if trying to hide his expression. A pink canary fell off Tomiko's desk due to what appears to be laughter. Tsuna turned bright red. Yes, he really does not want to know what her expression is.

Tsuna quickly got dressed and, after stammering an apology for his misconduct and getting mildly bitten to death, headed for class.

...

Reborn entered the reception room after Tsuna left.

"Ciaossu, Hibari." Reborn greeted.

"Baby." Kyoya greeted back.

Reborn turned to face the girl, noting a black broach with orange engravings pinned on her chest. The Namimori insignia beneath an angel-winged crown. "Who is this?"

Kyoya narrowed his eyes as the girl walked in front of Reborn and crouched down. Reborn could catch a glimpse of gold behind her long black bangs, pinned in a way that purposely hid her eyes. "I am Hibari Tomiko. Pleased to meet you…"

"Reborn."

"Pleased to meet you, Reborn-kun." She straightened, patting some invisible dust off of her uniform skirt then adjusting her shoulder-length hair, and turned to the male Hibari. "Kyoya, I will be at the principal's office."

"Hn."

Tomiko picked some files off the table and walked out of the room, sliding the door close behind her. The yellow canary remained perched on her shoulder.

"Hibari, who is she?"

Kyoya gave a territorial glare. "I changed my timeline. Stay away from her."

"If she does not involve herself I will not approach her." with that, Reborn left the room. He will need to call Fon over later to check who she is. Reborn had a gut feeling that she was not someone he should overlook.

Normally, Reborn would have hunted around for the information himself, no matter where he was or who threatens him. However, he was did not want to fight against Kyoya if necessary. The past Hibari Kyoya had grown even more bloodthirsty and territorial with age. It simply seemed the contrary due to his list of pet peeves drastically decreasing. In any case, Reborn easily induced that this Kyoya was 16 years more violent than the one he remembered.

While Reborn knew that he could take on Kyoya if he had to, the amount of energy and flames was he would need to acquire the victory was not worth the result. Besides, it did not matter to Reborn what Kyoya and the other guardians did in their spare time and who they made relations to. As long as it did not affect Tsuna.

...

The phone ringing interrupted Fon's meditation session.

"Wei?"

"Ciaossu."

"Reborn? You're in Namimori right? How are you? I wan't expecting you to call me so soon. How is Tsunayoshi-san?"

"Just fine." There was a short pause. "Have you heard of Hibari Tomiko?"

"Tomiko? I don't believe I have, though I have not met every single one of our clan so I can't be sure... Is there something you want to find out?"

"How is she related to Hibari Kyoya?"

"...?" Fon tilted his head slightly in confusion before realizing the full implication of the question. "Kyoya was never close to anyone in the clan." In all technicality, Fon himself was the one 'closest' to Kyoya, because he was the only person to interact with Kyoya on a close-enough-to-be-considered-personal level. If anyone else from the clan approached Kyoya... he would've attack them on sight before finding out why they sought him in the first place. Fon had heard the complaints a few too many times.

"Well obviously something has changed."

Fon pacifically ignored the sarcastic tone. "I'll seek information about Hibari Tomiko."

"Thanks."

The dial end tone continued to ring as Fon stared at the phone for a full 18 seconds. Lichi squealed and pressed the end button for him. Fon smiled at her. "So even Kyoya changes with time... But Tomiko...? ...Tomiko... I think I might have heard of her from somewhere actually... Oh." He blinked and stood up. "Ukyou _has_ mentioned her..." Fon sheepishly sighed. "By the way she worded it, it sounded as if Kyoya had adopted a pet cat."

Lichi squealed once more, climbing up Fon and resting on his shoulder.

Petting her, Fon walked out of the room. "Yes, I should give Kyoya's mother a call."

* * *

The team cheered as Takeshi hit his third home run. Both his team members and the opposition ran over to him.

"Yamamoto-san, you are amazing!"

"How do you do that?"

"Coach, next time switch up the teams so Yamamoto is in mine."

"Yamamoto-san, are you sure you're not going to go pro?"

"Another home, eh Yamamoto?" The coach walked into the field and patted Takeshi's back. "Are you running for top sportsman this year?"

"Haha that's Sasagawa-senpai. Senpai has a tournament right now doesn't he?"

"Yeah. Are you sure though? You are much more versatile in sports compared to him, didn't the basketball team ask to recruit you recently?"

"Maa maa" Takeshi scratched his head sheepishly. "News travels fast, doesn't it." Stretching his arms, he noticed Hana exiting the school. "Ah." Dodging the crowd, Takeshi ran the lap and hit home with record speed before he stopped in front of the coach. "Haha, coach, can I leave early?"

The coach blinked and shrugged. "I guess. You can go home earlier today if you want. The game wouldn't go anywhere if you keep hitting homes." He ruffled Takeshi's hair. "Think about going pro."

"Ahahaha... maybe. See you tomorrow, coach." Giving a wave, Takeshi ran out of the field and around the school. Knowing Kurokawa, she should be this way... Ah, there she is. "Kurokawa!" Hana paused when she hear her name and turned around, waiting for Takeshi to run up to her. "The kid has met Miko hasn't he."

Hana shrugged. "Can't expect any less from him. The monkey has always intruded everywhere he wasn't supposed to."

"Maa maa... He's just worried about Tsuna."

"He should adopt the expression 'respect personal space' into his dictionary and moral principles."

Takeshi gave an empty laugh. "...Haha..." He sighed. "What are you going to do?"

"You're asking me?" Hana gave Takeshi a smug smile. "You should be asking yourself that._ I_ can do whatever I want."

"..."

Shaking her head slightly, Hana sighed. "Listen monkey, stop being depressed about something that hasn't even started yet. There is always a way out of every situation if you are creative enough. He did it."

Takeshi openly frowned, a very rare expression, especially outside of his closest circle of friends. "... He had to sacrifice everything do so. I'm not like that. There are some things that I refuse to give up no matter what."

Hana shrugged, patting Takeshi on his shoulder once as she walked passed him. "This world is a give and take. Go and make a choice that you would never regret. I'm sure that's what he wants as well."

Watching her walk off, Takeshi groaned, stretching his arms over his face before plastering a fake smile. "...But that's the exact problem."

* * *

_Midori hanabiku, Namimori no~_

Vermei silently continued doing paperwork as Kyoya picked up his phone.

"Hn?" After listening to the speaker for a moment, he abruptly shot out of his chair and growled. Vermei looked up in surprise.

"…" Kyoya's grip on the phone tightened and it probably would have cracked if it wasn't reinforced. "Damn babies."

Glancing at Vermei, who had stopped doing everything in favour of trying to figure out what was happening, Kyoya grunted and turned around to face the window. Opening it, he jumped out without a second thought. A very detailed explanation.

Staring at the window, Vermei blinked twice and sighed. It seems like she would need to organize the reception room and lock up the school on her own today. A pink canary flew in through the opened window and landed on the coffee table in front of her, chirping.

"Lazy."

She shook her head. "I'm sure he has a good reason…" Stacking the papers together, she rose from the couch. "He'll tell me later."

* * *

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading~  
The 5 OC count does not include Ukyou (Kyoya's mother). I will define OCs as characters that 1) have a name and 2) did not have to exist in canon. Unless Kyoya sprouted out of a rock or something (which actually explains a lot but for the purpose of this story i will ignore that possibility), his parents must have existed. I am just taking liberty of the ambiguity provided by Amano Akira to produce my version of Kyoya's mother.  
Plot wise, Kyoya's mother is insignificant in Memoria. At first I considered leaving her unnamed but I figured that if by chance she is referenced later it would probably be much less confusing if she has a name.

-1458


	4. DA I -3- Kendo

"Tomiko-san is adopted." Fon explained to Reborn, "She has a sickness that caused her to hide her face behind that mask. She hides her eyes because that sickness also caused her to develop a strange eye color. She had been living in Namimori with Kyoya for 7 years and has had contact with Sawada Tsunayoshi the entire time. The reason Kyoya kept her is so that she could do his paperwork for him. Is there anything else you want to know?"

Reborn mulled over the information before shaking his head. "No, it's fine. Any more and I might stir Hibari." This was enough information to satisfy Reborn for now. In fact, he has completely stepped into Kyoya's boundary. Reborn was slightly surprised that the Skylark hasn't confronted him yet. Something was probably holding him back, Reborn guessed.

Fon nodded. "I will return to China then, my friend. Call me for anything else you may need." He bowed then left.

Reborn pulled out his Leon-phone. "Gokudera Hayato. Where are you?"

"Reborn-san. I've just arrived in Namimori and I am purchasing my apartment. I will bother the Skylark later for transfer forms. Is there anything you need?"

"I want you to watch over Hibari Tomiko and see what her relationship with Tsuna is."

"Hibari Tomiko? There's another Skylark?"

"Hibari changed the timeline for her."

"Oh. Is she a threat?" The tone of Hayato's voice did not reflect the nature of the question. It seemed that Gokudera did not believe that Hibari would introduce a threat to his boss. The relationship between the guardians is still strong it seems, mused Reborn.

"I don't know. Hibari told me to stay away from her."

"Alright, I'll keep an eye out for her… Reborn-san, does Juudaime truly have no memories?"

"…Yeah."

"I see…"

"You will need to replicate your first meeting with him."

"Eh?"

"Challenge him to a match."

"Eh? But why?"

"I need him to know the seriousness of the mafia."

"…Alright…"

"I'm counting on you." With that, Reborn hung up.

The night before, Reborn had explained to Tsuna about Vongola and how he was related through his great-great-great-grandfather. Tsuna showed no desire to become the boss, like his past self. However, the reason seemed to be different. This Tsuna was more preoccupied by the fact that he would be on the other side of the law compared to the past Tsuna who was concerned about causing harm and hurting people. It was most probably due to Hibari's influence, as Tsuna had obviously grown up seeing Hibari bite Yakuza to death on a regular basis.

* * *

Tsuna stared, confused, at the person in front of him. He had been peacefully going to school when suddenly this random upperclassmen had stopped him and started yelling. Tsuna had failed to comprehend the situation and basically decided to ignor the entire conversation. It took the upperclassmen 5 minutes to realize that Tsuna wasn't listening to him. Enraged, the senior started yelling even harder. Takeshi had step in to save Tsuna.

"Maa maa, Mochida-senpai, what's up? You are quite loud this morning, are you trying to compete with Sasagawa-senpai?"

The recently identified Mochida Kensuke glared at Takeshi. "Of course not. I am trying to tell this idiot that Kyoko is mine."

Takeshi put a hand on Mochida's shoulder. "Maa maa, it's not nice calling people idiots, Mochida-senpai."

"Kyoko-chan is ...yours?" Tsuna finally spoke. Wow, that question sounded just as weird out loud as it did in his mind.

"YES, YES, that's what I've been trying to tell you." Mochida screamed.

"Since when was Kyoko-chan …yours?" As far as Tsuna knew, Kyoko-chan was single and not an object that could be owned. Plus, he has never even seen this Mochida person before. As Kyoko-chan's childhood friend, it would be hard to not know someone who 'owned' her.

"SINCE ALWAYS. Now you! Stay away from her."

"I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure that Kyoko-chan doesn't belong to you-"

"THAT'S IT! I'M CHALLENGING YOU TO A KENDO MATCH. GYM. LUNCH." Mochida stormed off.

Tsuna blinked. "Wait what? How is that related?"

"Ahahaha, who knows? It seems that Mochida-senpai has made Kyoko-chan the prize of this match though."

"… Ha? But won't Onii-san go after the so-called winner of Kyoko-chan? And won't Hibari-niisan bite the winner to death for owning another person? Plus there's no way the student council will keep quiet-"

Reborn appeared out of nowhere and kicked the back of Tsuna's head. "Dame-Tsuna, just go win the match and everything will be fine."

"I don't know how to do Kendo. Takeshi, why don't you go instead?"

"Ahaha… he didn't challenge me though…" Takeshi nodded at Reborn. "Who's this kid?"

"Eh? Ah! Reborn, what are you doing here?"

"I'm teaching you how to become a mafia boss."

"Takeshi! Ignore what Reborn says, he's playing some complicated game." Tsuna ran into the school, purposely leaving Reborn behind.

"Haha, a game? Can I join?" Takeshi asked.

"..." Reborn ignored the idiotic response and jumped onto Takeshi's shoulder. "Gokudera Hayato arrived in Namimori this morning. He will transfer into your class tomorrow."

"Oh Hayato's here?" Takeshi beamed. "This will be fun."

"What do you know about Hibari Tomiko?"

"Miko-senpai? She is like Tsuna's big sister." Takeshi responded as the bell rang. "Well, I need to go. See you around, Reborn."

"Ah. I'll be at the match."

* * *

"That monkey is going down."

"Wait Hana." Kyoko sighed. "It's ok…"

"It is not ok. The monkey is so dead." Hana instantly flipped open her cellphone and began digging up her records on Mochida. "That monkey never gets the hint."

"Hmm? You know him?"

Hana nearly dropped her phone. "Wait, _you_ don't know who the monkey is?!" She actually gaped before she realized something. "Oh yeah. You haven't met him yet."

"Yet?"

Shrugging, Hana went back to her list of information. "3rd year kendo club captain. You should have seen him once or twice at the committee meetings."

"Oh." Hearing a tap on a nearby window, Kyoko took a step forward and opened it to let the green canary in. "Hana, you have a visitor."

Hana looked up from her phone and stared at the bird, who lazily stared back. They continued their staring contest for the next 5 seconds. Finally, not breaking eye contact, Hana closed her phone with a snap and stuck it in her pocket. "Sawada!"

Tsuna straightened at the sudden attention. "Hana-san, I don't have to fight that senpai. Onii-san, Hibari-niisan or Toku-nee would take care of everything." He stammered, glancing at the canary and waiting for it to confirm his claim.

The green canary gave him a pitying look and shook his head before flying onto Hana's shoulder.

"Sawada. You will fight and win against that monkey. Put him in his place." It was a command, not a suggestion.

Inwardly crying, Tsuna nodded. Oh why did Takeshi have to leave for the bathroom now?

…

And that was how Tsuna found himself in the Gym at lunch with a pile of Kendo equipment in front of him. He was quickly forced into armor that was much too heavy to be useful and a super heavy shinai stuffed into his hand. He just stood there, unsure of what to do. He had never played Kendo in his life and has no idea what the rules were. Tsuna was starting to regret not watching Takeshi practice.

Mochida, on the other hand, was slightly surprised that Tsuna was still standing even with the weighted equipment on. However, it didn't matter, because Mochida will win no matter what. He even had the judge on his side to ensure his victory.

"Kid, good job for not running away." Mochida sneered at the confused Tsuna, who was trying to figure out how to hold the shinai properly. "This will be a three-point match, and of course the prize is Sasagawa Kyoko!" He declared, gesturing Kyoko. The said prize was currently working on some papers to save time.

"Sawada, beat up that monkey!" Hana called from beside Kyoko. The rest of the audience had a very wide range of reactions, most watching just to enjoy the show. Mochida was known for pulling stunts after all.

...

Takeshi leaned on the back of the gym beside the door. Reborn leapt onto his shoulder.

"Yo, kid." Takeshi greeted.

"Ciaossu, Yamamoto." Reborn greeted back. "Dame-Tsuna is quite strong." It was obvious that the equipment was weighted. Reborn was delighted that Tsuna was not even breaking a sweat swinging the shinai. The only problem that Tsuna actually had was that he could not balance himself to make any hits. He was too focused on dodging all the hits Mochida gave him.

"Ahaha… Hibari, Senpai and I trained him for years. There's no way Hibari would let him be any weaker than this." Takeshi laughed. "Are you going to shoot Tsuna?"

Reborn took out his gun. "Dame-Tsuna doesn't even know what a point in kendo is."

"Maa maa, Tsuna never really liked swinging swords…"

Reborn gave the slightest nod at the statement and fired.

"REBORN! PREVENT SENPAI FROM OWNING KYOKO-CHAN WITH MY DYING WILL!"

The heavy armor disintegrated. Everyone stared at the near naked Tsuna in shock. Tsuna began swinging the shinai at Mochida randomly, successfully hitting him multiple times. However, the judge did not raise the flag.

"Tsuna got many points by now, right?" Takeshi straighten from his position.

Reborn frowned. "Mochida obviously rigged it…" He blinked as Takeshi took a step forward. "Where are you going?"

Smiling, Takeshi pulled out a folded piece of paper between his fingers. "I'm going to help Tsuna win." Reborn jumped off of Takeshi's shoulder in confusion and leapt on the balcony within the gym to watch Takeshi's apparent solution to the problem.

Takeshi walked up to the judge with a wave. "Senpai."

The judge turned to him. "Oh, Yamamoto. What do you want? I am the judge, it doesn't matter if you were the kendo champion last year. If I don't think the kid has the point, he doesn't have the point."

"Maa maa, I'm not here to criticize you." By now, everyone was watching this exchange. Even though he was merely a first year, Takeshi was very well known both in and out of Namichu. "I have something for you." He handed the judge the letter. "It is from Miko-senpai."

The judge stared at the name on the letter in horror. "F-from… H-hime-sama?"

"Haha, yup. She heard about what you guys were up to and asked me to give this to you." Takeshi beamed. "By the way, do you know who 'the kid' that Mochida-senpai is having a match with is?"

The judge shook his head in apprehension. At this, Takeshi bent near his ear and whispered something. He pulled back slowly, watching as the judge began paling to the point he became as white as a the letter. His entire body trembled as he turned to look at the name on the piece of paper once again.

"Maa maa, if you don't want to read it, it's fine. Miko-senpai told me to destroy it if you don't want to."

The judge slowly turned to Takeshi with hope in his eyes. Takeshi smiled and took the letter away from his hands, ripping it to pieces. He gathered the scraps of paper and put it in his pocket. "Senpai."

The judge snapped out of his trance. He turned to the two combatants. Tsuna had lost the flame on his head the moment Takeshi stepped into the scene. "I declare … 'the kid'… the winner of this match." He raised Tsuna's flag. The gym roared to life.

Mochida gaped. "That is abuse of authority!" He declared. "Besides, how are you sure that the letter is real? Why would Hime-sama give a letter to a 1st year?"

"Maa maa, it doesn't matter whether you trust me or not. Just ask Hibari-senpai, he should be here soon." At name of the demon, everyone shot to their feet and looked around the gym in fear, trying to find an escape route. If Hime-sama was involved, the chance of successfully appealing to her to escape punishment was close to none.

"Monkey, don't forget that Yamamoto is the sports ace of Namimori." Hana sighed as she nudged Kyoko, ignoring the commotion around her. The skylark would clean them up anyhow. "Kyoko, it's over."

"Eh? Oh." Kyoko looked up from her file and quickly stacked the paper together. She smiled. "Thank you, Tsuna-kun."

"No problem I guess…" Tsuna looked down at his near bare body and sneezed. "Where did my clothes go?"

"Haha, Tsuna, let's get you something to wear." Takeshi led the confused Tsuna out of the gym, Hana and Kyoko following behind. They ran to Hibari Kyoya.

"Hibari-niisan! I'm sorry, I don't know how I lost my clothes. Please don't tell Toku-nee!" Tsuna instantly stammered, comically trying to cover himself with his arms. He winced in anticipation for the biting.

Kyoya ignored Tsuna, instead focusing his attention on Takeshi. Takeshi subtly shook his head, a slightly disappointed look in his eyes. Kyoya gave an irritated grunt and passed by them to enter the gym. They could hear his catchphrase from outside.

...

"Takeshi, what did Toku-nee write to that senpai?" Tsuna asked, after getting dressed.

"Ahahaha, she didn't write anything actually. I told her about the match earlier then she gave me a folded blank piece of paper and wrote her name on the front." He showed them the scraps of paper.

"I need to thank Toku-chan later." Kyoko smiled, very glad that the situation ended 'peacefully', well as peacefully as it could be when it concerned the Hibaris and Hana. Mochida would not challenge Tsuna any time soon.

"Let's go now." The green canary flew off Hana shoulder and towards the direction of the reception room window. The two girls and Tsuna headed into the school. Since the skylark was in the gym, they wouldn't even need to worry about keeping quiet or crowding.

"Yamamoto." Reborn appeared in front of Takeshi, fedora hiding his eyes. "What did you say to the judge?"

Takeshi gave a small smile. "I called Tsuna the Hibaris' 'little brother'. Well, he is more of Miko-senpai's little brother compared to Hibari's…" He shrugged. "It is pretty much the same thing though." He left Reborn and headed back into the school.

Reborn stood there, unsure of how he should react. Hibari Tomiko obviously had some power over the students of the school. She could be a potential threat to Tsuna.


	5. DA I -4- Hayato

"Yo~"

Hayato turned around and gave an annoyed stare. "What do you want, baseball freak."

"Maa maa, shouldn't we be having a happier reunion? We haven't seen each other in so long."

"Save it for the others." Cold as usual.

Takeshi laughed and swung his arm over Hayato's neck. "Come on, do it properly. Welcome back to Namimori, Hayato."

"…" He sighed. "I'm back, Takeshi." Then he glared at the intrusive appendage. "Now get your arm off me before I blow it to kingdom come."

Laughing at the nostalgic response, Takeshi obeyed. "So how are you?"

"Fine." Hayato looked down at his wrist with a small smile, rubbing a thin silver bangle that Takeshi had never seen before. "More than fine, actually."

"Haha, that's good." There was a moment of silence as Hayato tried to formulate his questions. Takeshi patiently waited.

"Juudaime…" Hayato paused then growled. "That was pathetic. How could you fail to teach Juudaime the basic rules of kendo? Is your head full of baseball and sushi?"

Takeshi shrugged with a huge childish smile. "Maa maa, Hibari is in charge of Tsuna's training. Senpai and I only help out a little." Perfect ploy: when in trouble, blame it on someone else.

Hayato's jaw dropped. "The Skylark trained him?" He held his hand over his mouth, trying to envision a pupil of Kyoya. What came out was a bloodthirsty insane blob that sang the namimori anthem. He grabbed Takeshi's shoulders. "Is Juudaime alright?"

"…?" Takeshi blinked, confused about the question. "Yeah? Tsuna is fine." Pausing, he realized where Hayato's train of thought went. "Haha, don't worry, Hibari is busy with a lot of other things so they only train a few times a week." He shrugged. "Tsuna didn't spend all that much time with Hibari."

"The Skylark…" Hayato trailed off as he decided to hold off his questions. Right now Juudaime was at a much higher priority than some stray Hibari took in. He glanced at the school clock. "Oi, baseball freak. Shouldn't you be heading to class soon?"

As if on cue, the bell rang. "Haha, yup. I guess so. Do you know the way to class, Hayato?"

"Of course, I'm not like you. Now go before you are late."

"Maa maa, don't worry about it." Takeshi laughed. "Well, I'll see you a few minutes later."

"Yeah, yeah. Hurry up and leave."

…

"This is our new student, Gokudera Hayato. He recently moved here from Italy."

Hayato glared at everything, like usual, trying his best to ignore the crazy eyes of his much hated fangirls. He had learnt from trial and error that glaring at them makes the situation worse. When he saw Takeshi waving at him, however, he glared even harder. For some reason, he thought he heard a girl squeal. Following his principle of not to look at girls, he ignored it. Then he saw who he presumed to be Sawada Tsunayoshi. Hayato studied Sawada Tsunayoshi intently, memorizing each detail. This one looked very different from the past one. Lighter and spikier hair, lighter and narrower eyes. Overall, this Sawada Tsunayoshi looked more masculine.

While Hayato was busy analyzing Tsuna, the teacher was trying to get him to his seat. As expected, Hayato acted as if the teacher didn't exist. The whole class sweat dropped. As for Tsuna... he was getting very nervous about the attention he was receiving from the new kid and a few jealous girls in the class. In the end, Takeshi had to step in to save Tsuna and help the teacher start his lesson.

"Hayato~" Takeshi called.

Instantly Hayato snapped his attention from Tsuna to Takeshi "What, baseball freak."

"Go to your seat, you can look at Tsuna's face later."

Hayato blinked and obediently went to his seat. Tsuna blushed, inwardly cursing Takeshi for making him feel even more awkward. Wow, the glare of those fangirls can fry an egg.

…

A horde of student surrounded Hayato's desk during break as Hayato helplessly watched Tsuna run out the classroom. Guess he would need to wait for lunch...

"Hayato-san-"

Instantly, Hayato gave an ice cold glared. "**Don't** address me so familiarly."

Before the weapons appeared, Takeshi patted Hayato's shoulder. Wow, he's even more anti-social than before. "Maa maa, calm down a bit Hayato."

The glare was directed to Takeshi. Hayato's eyes sure have a lot of stamina.

"Eeeh? How come Yamamoto-kun can call you 'Hayato'?" amongst the hyper fangirls, there was actually one who voiced a complaint. Future president of the Gokudera fan club.

Hayato didn't even look at her. "Because he is the baseball freak."

"Maa maa, Hayato and I are best friends~" Takeshi laughed, swinging his arm around Hayato's neck again. There were once again high-pitched noises occurring in the background.

Reaching his limit, he was surprised that he even managed to make it this far without hurting anyone, Hayato stood up and gave Takeshi a 'get us to a private place right now' look.

Takeshi blinked twice and flashed a blinding smile. "Haha, you want to go to the bathroom? You could have said so earlier, Hayato, there's no need to be shy. I'll take you there." Waving at the crowd of students, Takeshi laughed. "We are going to skip the next class. Tell the teacher for us ok?"

The students were stupefied as they watched Hayato and Takeshi exit the classroom. "…Why would both of them need to spend so long in the bathroom together?"

It took a whole minute of dead silence before the first 'KYAAAA' rang out. Oh my.

* * *

At lunch, Tsuna found himself ambushed on his way back to the classroom and dragged by the new kid to the back of the school.

"You. Vongola Decimo. Fight me." Hayato said, monotone.

Reborn appeared out of nowhere to clarify the situation and save Hayato's poor acting. "The loser serves the winner."

Tsuna blinked. "Wait what?"

A perfect drop-kick to Tsuna. "Just fight him."

Seeing no one move, Reborn gave Hayato the look. Well, there's his cue to act. Hayato robotically pulled out a few dynamite.

"Oh by the way, this is Smoking Bomb Hayato, he is known for hiding a huge supply of dynamite on his body."

Tsuna looked at Reborn in horror. "Are you serious? Dynamite? The stuff that goes boom? Hibari-niisan will bite me to death!"

Reborn kicked Tsuna again. "Just fight him."

Apprehensive about this whole dynamite thing, Tsuna turned to look at Hayato while slowly forming a stance. By now, Hayato was sweating bullets. He did not know how to do this without hurting his precious Juudaime. All the dynamite in his hands were smoke bombs, weakest smoke bombs he could possibly make, but even they could potentially irritate Juudaime's skin.

Reborn rolled his eyes as he saw Hayato's hesitation and shot a bullet near him. This seems to have worked, as Hayato finally tossed the bombs at Tsuna, albeit weakly. If Tsuna studied the trajectory, he would have realized that the bombs stopped nowhere near him or the school.

Fortunately for Hayato, Tsuna was in the middle of a freak out. The moment he saw the bombs leave his hands, he lunged towards them in an effort to put them out. Reborn decided to help Tsuna out by shooting the dying will bullet.

"REBORN! PREVENT THE SCHOOL FROM BEING DAMAGED WITH MY DYING WILL!"

Tsuna worked hard diffusing the smoke bombs.

...

Kyoko and Hana watched the scene from the third floor, too far away to make out what Hayato and Tsuna were saying. Not that it mattered to Hana, she was certain she could accurately ad-lib the entire conversation. Probably narrate it in her sleep as well.

"Monkey can't make a career in acting."

"Hana... shouldn't we stop them? What if Tsuna-kun gets hurt."

"Don't worry, that won't happen. In fact, the opposite is much more likely." Hana sighed. "See those explosives the monkey is carrying, they're props. Monkey is trying and failing to act like a gangster."

Kyoko blinked and examined the bombs more closely. They did indeed caused absolutely no damage, both to Tsuna and Namichu property, but... "Where's Inchou? Wouldn't he be biting everyone to death by now?" There was a lot of smoke everywhere. In fact, Kyoko was surprised that no one had even approached the scene to check it out yet.

Hana shrugged. "Who knows. He'll be here eventually. Let's go, Kyoko. That monkey left you some work to do, right?" She took a step away from the window and turned around. Seeing Kyoko's hesitance, Hana sighed. "Don't worry. In the off-chance that Sawada gets hurt due to the explosives, the monkey would cry till he dehydrates himself to death." She paused. "Or maybe he would hit his head on the ground till he dies of a concussion."

"Eh? You know him?"

"Never met someone worse at acting."

For some reason, that response comforted Kyoko. She smiled and stepped forward beside Hana. "Let's clean up Kaichou's office."

"That would take at least 2 days."

"And we have 2 days~" Kyoko sparkled as she skipped into the office.

Hana snorted. "The monkey's in for a surprise when he gets back."

…

Outside the school, Hayato noticed Tsuna's hands beginning to redden and inwardly cried in agony. Not wanting Tsuna to get any more hurt, he purposely dropped a lit smoke bomb at his feet. It exploded under him. However, because it was a smoke bomb, it caused no damage. As a result, Hayato had to drop to the floor, lay on his back, and cry in fake pain.

"You win, Juudaime. I will serve you forever." He dramatically said on the floor.

Takeshi chose this moment to break Hayato's drama. "Ahaha… what are you doing Hayato? You look funny."

Hayato jumped up. "Shut up baseball freak, I was in the middle of dying."

Takeshi laughed. "Haha… sorry for interrupting Hayato." He turned to poor confused Tsuna. "Tsuna, I brought you some clothes."

Tsuna gratefully accepted the clothes. He looked at Hayato in confusion. "Is he… part of the family?"

"Yup!" Takeshi slung an arm around Hayato's neck. "This is Gokudera Hayato. He has all these cool fireworks on him."

"Dynamite! They are dynamite, idiot." Hayato yelled.

"Maa maa, same thing."

Hayato then began a lengthy explanation of how dynamite and fireworks were chemically different. Takeshi just laughed. Tsuna sweat dropped.

"Um… " Tsuna tried to interject but failed. Reborn landed in front of him.

"You know about the family?" Reborn asked, expressionless.

"Know about?" Tsuna tilted his head slightly. "You mean that it's full of strong people who protect each other?"

Reborn blinked at the answer. "Who taught you that?"

"Hibari-niisan."

Reborn blinked again. He could understand the strong part, but how many animal analogies did Hibari need to manage to teach Tsuna about protecting? Reborn shrugged. Well whatever, it saved him a little time.

"Umm... Reborn…" Seeing him look up, Tsuna scratched his face. "Does that mean that you are part of the family too?"

"Maybe." With that, Reborn disappeared to wherever he goes.

"Herbivore."

Takeshi, Hayato and Tsuna all turned towards the voice at once.

"For the attempt destruction of Namichu, I will bite you to death."

"SKYLARK, I DIDN'T EVEN DAMAGE ANYTHING." Hayato screamed as he ran across the schoolyard. He was not as hot-headed as before and was definitely not going to throw himself in front of the Skylark for no reason, especially when he was ill-equipped. Smoke bombs VS Hibari Kyoya? Anyone with half a brain would flee.

Kyoya began to chase after the bombing herbivore but stopped shortly in front of Tsuna. He patted Tsuna on the head once. "Good job." Then he ran after Hayato.

Tsuna was overjoyed at the rare compliment. Takeshi laughed beside him. "Oh yeah, Takeshi."

"Hm?"

"Is Gokudera-san strong?"

Takeshi nodded with a smile. "Yup. Hayato is strong~ He's more of the King's kind of strong though."

Tsuna admired Hayato with a new perspective. "Wow, this is the first time I met someone who is Sol-nii kind of strong."

"Ahaha, yeah. Don't tell Hayato though."

Tsuna was confused as to why but nodded anyways.

* * *

"EXTREME KYOKO! I EXTREMELY MISSED YOU!" Ryohei roughly dropped his luggage on the train platform and ran over to give Kyoko a gentle extreme hug.

Hana facepalmed. "You were only gone for a day and a half."

"I EXTREMELY MISSED YOU AS WELL, HANA!"

"…" Hana did not remove her hand from her face even as Ryohei gave her a brief hug.

Smiling at the common routine, Kyoko walked over to her brother's discarded luggage and picked a bag up. "Onii-chan, we need to go home soon. It's almost dinner time."

"Ah! I extremely forgot." Ryohei ran over and grabbed his luggage, swinging them all onto his back along with the bag that Kyoko picked up. "Yes! We should extremely head home! Hana, are you extremely staying over tonight?"

"Of course. Someone needs to sort that mess up." Hana glanced at the bags and sighed. "And you obviously aren't part of that someone."

"I EXTREMELY DO NOT DESTROY EVERY EXTREME THING!"

"Uh huh. You only rip all of your laundry when you try to 'extremely power scrub' it, crush all of your half-full bottles of soap and shampoo because they are 'extremely light so they must be empty' and render all of your documents and papers unreadable because you 'extremely forgot about them'. And I won't even bother to mention the time you snapped your trophy in half while showing it off." Hana sighed. "If only you were half as gentle to inanimate objects as you are to animate ones." She muttered.

Embarrassed at his long list of shortcomings, Ryohei enthusiastically changed the subject. "So how was your extreme day, Kyoko? Did anyone extremely bully you?"

Kyoko shook her head. "Nope." She paused. "Tsuna-kun might have been bullied though…"

"He wasn't." Hana cut in. She glanced at Ryohei. "The monkey transferred into our class today."

It took Ryohei a second to figure out which monkey Hana was talking. He pumped his fist into the air. "EXTREME! TAKO-HEAD IS EXTREMELY HERE!"

"?" Kyoko cocked her head slightly. "Onii-chan, you know him as well?"

"EXTREME! TAKO-HEAD IS AN EXTREMELY FUNNY GUY."

"Oh." Giving a sigh of relief, Kyoko smiled. "Thank goodness. I thought Tsuna-kun was being bullied because so someone else fought him yesterday as well."

"WHAT? WHO WAS EXTREMELY FIGHTING WITH TSUNA?"

"The monkey."

Again, it only took Ryohei a second to figure out which monkey in question. "MOCHIDAAAA" He looked Kyoko up and down. "DID THAT UNEXTREME GUY DO ANYTHING UNEXTREME TO YOU?!"

"Eh? No. I'm fine." Kyoko paused. "Onii-chan doesn't like Mochida-senpai?"

"HE IS UNEXTREME!" Fire burned in Ryohei's eyes as he was already planning his route to take down Mochida.

"Ryo." Hana sighed. "The monkey didn't do anything to Kyoko. She didn't even know about him before the match."

"What? Mochida didn't extremely stalk, peep, take pictures, steal your things, smell-"

Kyoko looked scandalized. "Onii-chan! Mochida-senpai couldn't possibly do those sort of things." Actually no one could.

Hana agreed. "Stop worrying about stupid things."

…

"Hana."

Glancing up from her book, Hana bookmarked it and put it on her lap after seeing that this was probably going to be a long conversation. "What?"

"About Mochida, did you extremely do anything?"

"No." Seeing Ryohei's questioning expression, Hana elaborated. "I didn't need to do anything to stop the match."

"Did Hibari's extreme relative take care of it?"

Hana shrugged. "Yes, isn't it obvious through elimination? Since both you and that monkey skipped town right before when the match happened and Hibari obviously won't do anything about it, she took care of it."

"Oh." Ryohei clapped his hands together and bowed slightly. "I'm extremely sorry, Hana!"

"Don't apologize to me, I didn't do anything. Besides, it wasn't even your fault." She paused. "Don't go after the monkey."

Ryohei gave a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his head.

She sighed. "The monkey is subdued, ignore him." Pausing, Hana gave a slight smile. The things she would do to clean up afterwards... She picked up her book. "If you are truly sorry, don't go after him."

"…" Ryohei gaped. An extreme man would beat up the idiot who sullied his sister but an extreme man also keeps his word... "FINE." Ah, he really wanted to beat up Mochida at least once. Pity.


	6. DA I -5- Nezu

While Hayato's temper was considerably lower than the past, it did not stop him from overreacting when egoistic idiots berate his beloved Juudaime. That was a shared trait among the guardians, everyone expressing their anger differently. However, Hayato was called out for it most often because he was the most destructive property-wise. As a result, Hayato had ironically the highest tolerance against insults.

So when Hayato attacked Nezu Dohachiro for continually insulting Tsuna's test paper, it was undeniably agreed upon that Nezu had gone way too far.

Tsuna's grade wasn't even the lowest; in fact, it was average. His test just happened to be on the top of the pile when Nezu started his rant about how he was a first-class elite and how everyone else wasn't. This unfortunately led to Nezu directing his rant at Tsuna personally.

After a long 5 minutes, Gokudera Hayato jumped out of his seat in rage and walked to the teacher. Takeshi instantly responded to Hayato, quickly grabbing his arms before explosives appeared into view. Tsuna also ran to Hayato, already trying to calm him down.

All would have been fine, if Nezu did not step back in fear and consequently slipped, hitting the back of his head on the ledge of the blackboard.

...

Somehow, Nezu managed to bring them to the principal.

"Principal! Expel them!"

The principal looked at the three students then at Nezu. "Now, now… I can't just expel a student without a good reason-"

"Good reason?! They attacked me! I was hit on the head! What if I suffered brain damage?! The world wouldn't survive without enough elites!"

"Nezu-sensei… I do not believe you are seriously harmed…"

"Principal. I believe you said something about a time capsule that you could not find."

"Eh?" The principal scratched his face. Did he?

"Make these three find it as punishment. If they can't find it, expel them!"

The principal ended up agreeing.

...

The three of them left the principal's office and turned the corner in silence.

Instantly, Hayato dropped to the floor in a seiza and began to bang his head on the ground. "I'M SORRY JUUDAIME. BECAUSE OF ME, YOU ARE GOING TO BE EXPELLED."

It took the joint efforts of Tsuna and Takeshi to drag Hayato off the ground.

"G-gokudera-san, it's not your fault." Tsuna frantically tried to calm Hayato down.

"Maa maa, we aren't expelled yet, let's try to find this time capsule."

"JUUDAIME, I WILL FIND THIS CAPSULE RIGHT AWAY." Hayato pulled out a lot of dynamite and turned to the direction that he remembered where the 40 year old capsule was.

"Gokudera-san! It's alright… we don't need to find the capsule, please don't destroy the school…" Tsuna pulled a confused Hayato with him and headed down the hall. Takeshi followed behind, laughing.

...

They stopped in front of the reception room.

"Gokudera-san, please keep quiet ok? I don't Hibari-niisan to wake up…" Tsuna knew that it was Kyoya's nap time right now and he learned from personal experience that it was a very dangerous time for his wellbeing.

Hayato instantly nodded and slammed both hands over his mouth. Tsuna gently knocked on the door and stepped backwards. A few seconds later, the door quietly slid open and Tomiko stepped out. She slid the door closed behind her.

"Tsuna? What's wrong?" Tsuna would normally avoid the reception room at this time like it was the plague.

"Toku-nee… um…" Tsuna twiddled his fingers. "I need to find a time capsule or I will be… e-expelled…"

Tomiko stared at him for a few seconds before rubbing her temple, soothing a potential headache. "There is no time capsule on Namimori Middle School grounds."

Hayato attempted to jump forward but Takeshi pulled him back before he was able to. "Maa maa, Hayato, calm down."

"Shut up baseball freak." He turned to Tomiko. "You. What do you mean there's no time capsule. Do you want Juudaime expelled?"

Tsuna instantly stood in front of Tomiko protectively. "Gokudera-san, Toku-nee would never want me expelled! If she says there's no time capsule there is no time capsule." He turned around. "I'm sorry Toku-nee…"

Tomiko shook her head. "You did nothing wrong." She moved her head slightly to see Hayato. "This is…?"

"Eh? Um… He is Gokudera Hayato, my classmate." Unknown to Tsuna, the statement stabbed Hayato like 10 spears.

"Oh, the new student." Tomiko nodded. "I am Hibari Tomiko. Pleased to meet you, Gokudera-san. Please take care of Tsuna, nee?" She patted Tsuna on the head. "Tsuna, don't worry about the time capsule or being expelled. Kyoya and I will take care of it."

Tsuna beamed. "Thank you, Toku-nee. I will go back to class now. See you later." he turned around and rapidly headed for class. The sooner he got out of this area, the longer he would live.

"Haha, thanks Miko. Nezu-sensei kinda went bang on the blackboard eraser ledge then we found ourselves in the principal's office." Takeshi explained.

"… Nezu…? …Nezu Dohachiro?"

"Yup. Well, I need to head back to class as well. See ya" Takeshi waved at Tomiko and dragged Hayato down the hall.

When they were out of sight, Tomiko sighed and leaned back, resting against the wall beside the reception room door. The door slid open shortly after.

"I will bite that herbivore to death for suggesting the destruction of Namichu grounds." The only way to uncover a time capsule is to dig. Or use dynamite. The latter was much more likely to happen.

Tomiko got off the wall and turned to the door. "…I am curious as to why the principal agreed."

Kyoya nodded in agreement. "Tetsu." Kusakabe Tetsuya appeared before them.

"Kusakabe-san, could you get the security footage for the principal's office?" Tomiko asked.

"Right away." Kusakabe nodded and headed off to fulfill the order.

...

"Baseball freak."

Takeshi stopped walking and turned around.

"What is Hibari Tomiko's relationship with Juudaime?" As far as Hayato could see, Hibari Tomiko was no one particularly special and probably depended on the skylark quite a bit.

Takeshi gave Hayato a huge smile. "Miko is Tsuna's savior."

Hayato blinked, having not expected that answer. "Savior? Juudaime was in serious trouble?"

At this, Takeshi's face fell. "Yeah… it was last year… Tsuna got bullied and almost failed school. Miko prevented Tsuna from failing."

Hayato was about to demand what Takeshi was doing while Juudaime was being harassed, but the look on Takeshi's face stopped him. It was obvious that Takeshi really regretted it.

"…The girl is Juudaime's savior…" Hayato mumbled. Well that would explain why Tsuna defended her like he did.

"Maa maa, Miko is also Tsuna's first friend and an older sister to him. She's been helping him even before I moved to Namimori."

Hayato nodded at the information as they entered the classroom.

* * *

"… Yes, we received it… Yes. Thank you… No, it's fine. You don't need to appear. Kyoya and I will take care of it ourselves. It's a problem within the school administration after all… Really, don't worry about it-"

Kyoya grabbed the phone from Tomiko. "Herbivore. We can handle it." He then hung up.

She sighed as a black canary flew onto her unoccupied shoulder. "You didn't need to hang up on him…"

"The herbivore was annoying."

Tomiko shook her head slightly in exasperation. She picked up the file from the table and flipped through it. Kyoya read it beside her, giving a smirk when they reached the end.

"This is probably enough." Tomiko restored the file's order. The black canary chirped cheerfully.

"Hn." Kyoya exited the reception room with Tomiko. "Tetsu."

"Inchou. Here is the footage."

They watched the footage in silence. Kyoya was not impressed. He stormed straight into the principal's office, Tomiko and Kusakabe trailing behind.

Kyoya slammed the door to the principal's office open and within 5 seconds, the principal found himself tied to his chair.

"Herbivore…" Kyoya growled. "For being a lectivorous herbivore, I will bite you to death."

The poor principal looked at him in confusion. Why did he need to leave his animal encyclopedia at home?

"Kyoya…" Tomiko sighed as she walked up beside Kyoya. The black canary flew off Tomiko's shoulder and nested himself into Kyoya's hair. "At least explain it to him properly."

The principal began to tremble in fear. "H-hime-sama. W-what happened?" If both Hibaris were in his office, something very bad must have occurred.

The two Hibaris said nothing. Kusakabe stepped forward for them and showed the principal the footage of him meekly obeying the demands of Nezu expelling three students.

"Ah…" The principal did not even bother to question how they got this footage. It obviously had something to do with the King.

"Principal… I do not recall Nezu Dohachiro being one of the teachers of Namichu." Tomiko said after asking Kusakabe to leave the room to call Nezu-sensei to the principal's office.

"Ah, um…" Kyoya growled. "H-he was recommended by a friend of mine after the mathematics teacher suddenly quit because he needed to head back to his hometown." The principal stammered.

"…Why weren't any of us informed?"

"E-err, u-um…" Kyoya pressed a tonfa against the herbivore's neck. He was growing more and more impatient by the second. The black canary fluttered his wings, still nested in Kyoya's hair. "I am sincerely sorry, Hime-sama. It was a sudden decision and the King seemed busy and it escaped my mind afterwards... Once again, I'm very sorry." The principal bowed as much as he could while tied to the chair.

Tomiko sighed. "Principal, you are free to hire whomever you want as your staff, however it would be recommendable if you perform a full background check on them before hiring." She slid a file on his desk in front of him. The file was labelled _'Nezu Dohachiro's academic record'_. Tomiko helped the principal flip through the pages as he read still tied to the chair. When he reached the end, he shakily looked up at Tomiko. Perhaps she would forgive him?

"…I am sincerely sorry, Hime-sama. I will fix my mistakes right away." Tomiko nodded and Kyoya unbound the principal. The two of them walked to the side of the room.

A minute later, Nezu entered the room. "Principal, were you looking for me?"

"Eh, yeah. Nezu-kun. I am sorry but I will have to ask you to immediately resign from your position."

Nezu gave a pleasantly shocked expression. "W-what? Are you serious? Why?"

Gesturing Nezu forward, the principal slid the file towards him. Nezu look at the file and froze. "W-what? H-how…"

The principal said nothing, instead nodding towards the two other occupants in the room. Nezu turned to look at them, noticing the 'discipline' arm badge and the glossy black broach upon first glance, and began to sweat bullets. He had heard the rumours.

"Herbivore. For multiple offences, I will bite you to death."

"Nezu-san, I will kindly inform you that the file in front of you has been distributed to the other schools in the district. Please refrain from bullying your students and peers in the future. Principal, I will meet with you later to discuss the events that happened today in more detail. The forms will be prepared within an hour. Please excuse me." The principal's silent plea for mercy was left ignored. The canary flew off of his head and back onto her shoulder. Tomiko bowed and left the room to let Kyoya do his biting in peace.

Kusakabe was standing outside the office, guarding the area, along with a few other members of the DC. Standby to clean up after Inchou. "5 minutes?"

Glancing at the door, Tomiko nodded. "Yeah, I guess 5 minutes is appropriate. Thank's for the good work, Kusakabe-san and everyone else."

"Thank you as well, Hime-san." The other DC members gave Tomiko a deep bow.

* * *

A black canary with a white dash above its beak flew into the classroom and onto Tsuna's shoulder at lunch. Tsuna looked at the canary and beamed. "Toku-nee wants to see me?"

The canary nodded twice. Tsuna shot up and quickly walked to the reception room. Takeshi and Hayato followed after him.

"Baseball freak, what is that black bird? I thought Hibari only had yellow birds."

"Haha, that's Miko's bird. Hibari doesn't have any birds yet remember? You know that yellow bird that was on her shoulder with the spiky feathers? That's also Miko's bird. That bird follows Miko everywhere."

Hayato nodded in revelation. No wonder that bird looked a bit different than what he remembered. "She has two?"

Takeshi shook his head. "Nah, she has several. They are all different colours. That's how you can recognize between hers and Hibari's future birds I guess. Other than the one on her shoulder, all of the yellow birds are Hibari's."

"Che. How confusing."

...

Tsuna slid open the door to the DC office. "Toku-nee!" The bird flew off his shoulder and onto a perch at the side of the room.

Tomiko raised her head. "Tsuna, don't worry about the expulsion. We took care of it." She paused and rested her head on her hand. Her yellow bird shifted slightly on her other shoulder to renew his grip. "Nezu won't bother you any longer."

Takeshi whistled. "Thanks, Miko-senpai~ You fired him?"

Tomiko did not respond.

Tsuna stared at her, wide-eyed. "To-toku-nee. You didn't need to fire him for me."

She sighed. "He did not fulfill the requirements to be a teacher at Namichu. He would have been fired either way."

Hayato appraised her more closely, mildly impressed. "Not bad." So she was independent from Hibari. It takes more than brute physical aggression to fire someone after all.

"Haha, of course. Miko-senpai is amazing." Tsuna instantly agreed with Takeshi.

Kyoya's appearance save her from spluttering in embarrassment. "Tomiko," He slid the door open. "the lectivore will be retrained starting tomorrow." The principal was downgraded.

"Eh? This early? Weren't we going to wait until summer?"

"I will not have a lectivore running this school." Tsuna instantly pitied the principal. He knew that the tutoring Hibari-niisan put him through would be nothing compared to what they were planning for the poor man.

Tomiko sighed and resigned to her fate for the rest of the day. "Alright… I'll go prepare…" She got up to leave for the Hibari residence. Both Hibaris did not keep any documents in the office other than student and staff files. "See you later Tsuna, Takeshi, Gokudera-san."

They bid their farewells back and split ways outside the office.

"Hibari." Reborn appeared in front of Kyoya after the door slid closed. He had watched the entire conversation. "Answer me. How much control does Hibari Tomiko have in this school?"

Kyoya gave a bloodthirsty smirk. "Enough."

The fedora was lowered over his eyes. "Does she have enough power to fire the principal?"

"Baby. Do not overstep your territory."

Reborn grumbled inwardly and left the room.

* * *

"So you finally got rid of that stupid monkey."

Tomiko nodded as she held a finger up. The green canary landed on it and sighed. She handed the bird a truffle. "Yeah... Why didn't you tell me about him?"

Hana snorted. "Well I figured that you already knew." She took out her phone and began to clean up her data. The stuff on Nezu needs to be updated. "You could have waited until tomorrow to take care of the monkey. Isn't it the student council president's job to take care of the staff in the first place?"

There was a long sigh. "Technically it isn't. Besides, we don't need him to take care of something this scale. The results would still be the same."

"True." Hana shrugged. "It's actually a bit more convenient without the monkey as well. Everything can be blamed on the disciplinary committee."

"... You're using Kyoya as a scapegoat?"

"Him and his team of monkeys." She looked up from her phone. "He wouldn't care either way." 'Would not', not 'does not'.

Tomiko glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. This was definitely going to be a very long day. "I'll tell him later."

"Mm." Satisfied with the updates to her information, Hana closed her phone. "Anything else?"

"No. Thank you, Hana."

"Thank me when I finish." Giving a wave, Hana turned to leave the room. "Have fun with that paperwork." She slid the door closed as Tomiko grumbled.


	7. DA I -6- Kaichou

"Hey King-" The leader of the shoji club instantly slammed her hand over her mouth. No wonder it was deathly silent in here.

The other club presidents looked wearily at her, most of them giving the skylark a quick glance. Hibari Kyoya remained seated on the windowsill, looking out the opened window at the students below.

Quietly sitting in her seat, the shoji captain looked around the tables. All of the seats were filled except for two: the boxing captain's, which was not a surprise since he was known for crashing into the office 3 hours early because he extremely forgot when the meeeting was (so Kaichou usually ends up doing a one-on-one meeting with him), and Kaichou's. Huh... Kaichou's? But Kaichou would never be late to a meeting that concerned Inchou. In fact, he would be the earliest to arrive… The club leader looked at the baseball captain, who merely responded by a shake of his head. They all were just as confused as she was.

There was a knock on the door catching all of their attention. Vermei slid the door open and closed it behind her. "Good afternoon… I will be leading this meeting in the king's place today."

A murmur started to arise despite the presence of the demon. Some people were happy, most were simply just confused.

The president of the calligraphy club was the first to speak. "Mei-chan! Good afternoon."

Vermei nodded and smiled at her, taking the head seat.

Gaining courage, the leader of the light music club finally asked the question on everyone's mind. "Kurodo-san, why are you filling in for Kaichou?"

"The king is returning home from Tokyo. He will be back tomorrow." Vermei pulled out her files and set them on the table before combing her shoulder length black hair into place gently with her fingers.

"May I ask why you are leading?" The president of the literature club glanced at Kyoya quickly before continuing with his question, deeming it safe to ask. "Why not the vice president or someone else?"

"They are picking the king up from the train station." Vermei looked at all of the club leaders faces, eyes glowing golden from the sunlight. "Originally, this meeting was to be postponed to next week. However, due to multiple requests from many of you, we are holding it now, without the king. I was personally asked by the principal to take over, please direct all your questions to him."

Anyone who looked like they wanted to speak up were silenced by their neighbours. Seeing no objections, Vermei nodded and continued.

"As you are all aware, this meeting is to discuss the room assignments for the clubs." She handed a stack of paper containing the designated room list to the person beside her to pass down the table. "This is the room arrangement for this year-"

"Why does the disciplinary committee get 3 rooms?!" Came the instant protest from the computer club. "And we've always had 2 rooms, why do we only have 1 this year?"

"Why are you even asking?" The captain of the judo club sighed. "Hime-sama caught you distributing porn, isn't it obvious that you would be punished for it?"

"But that was the graduates from last year." He defended. "And Hime-sama already cut our budget by 50%. It's overkill if we are deprived of a room as well."

"If you want to make an appeal, please do so after the meeting." Vermei finally entered into the argument, effectively ending it. "Please do not use other people's time for personal issues… Yes, Mochida-san?"

The captain of the kendo club lowered his hand. "That does not answer the question. Why does the DC need so many rooms?" He glanced down at the list of rooms. "I understand the reception room, but why do you need 3 rooms, again?"

"The DC feels the need to use 3 rooms and has convinced the king and the principal of so."

"Are you even qualified to speak on their behalf?" Mochida leaned back on his seat. "Everyone here knows that you have connections to the DC, so how would we be so sure that you are telling the truth?"

The other club leaders glanced worriedly at the Skylark, who's only movement was to yawn. That did not comfort them though, as Hibari-san could literally bite you to death within half a blink when properly riled up.

"As I have mentioned earlier, the principal personally requested that I take over for this meeting. He has granted me the right to speak on his behalf."

"That same principal is currently being tortured by the disciplinary committee isn't he? The whole school knows what happened to Nezu and the principal." Mochida let go of the list and watched the paper float down onto the table. "How is this not a conspiracy?"

"…" Vermei remained silent as the rest of the students in this room were internally debating whether they should jump in and stop the conversation or run out of the room. They decided to pray for the angel.

"Well it doesn't matter. It's not like we can do anything about it anyways, since everyone knows that appealing to Hime-sama over this matter is pointless as she benefits from this arrangement as well."

Vermei furrowed her eyebrows slightly. "…Mochida-san, what point are you trying to express?"

"Nothing much. Just the fact that this school is just like a dictatorship, with the only ray of hope deeply intertwined in the whole power struggle. And you just watch us from above, letting us run around like blind mice. Mice that know that a single wrong step could send us to the hospital or ruin our lives. How heartless."

Before Vermei could even narrowed her eyes, Kyoya had already pressed a tonfa against Mochida's throat. "Herbivore." He began slowly. "Would you care to repeat what you just said?"

Mochida blinked in confusion and ran what he said twice through his head before he realized his mistake. His eyes widened considerably. Shaking his head rapidly he stammered his apologies. "N-no. I didn't mean that. My mistake. Sorry." He tensed as the tonfa didn't move away from his neck.

A black canary flew into the room through the window and onto Kyoya's shoulder, whistling the Namichu anthem. When the tune ended, Kyoya lowered his weapon and returned back to the windowsill, grumbling about annoying herbivore. The black canary whistled the Namichu anthem once more. Kyoya glanced at the bird before he turned towards the sky.

The meeting went on without further incidence.

* * *

Lambo had never been a planner. He would just barge into the scene, disregarding everything else, and cause a lot of destruction along the way. This was why none of the people, save Tsuna, were all that surprised when Lambo crashed through his window yelling. "TSUNA-NII!"

Tsuna looked at the lump that jumped onto him and was now clutching him with an infant's grip in surprise. Was this a …cow?

"STUPID COW, GET OFF OF JUUDAIME." Hayato ripped Lambo off of Tsuna. Takeshi laughed. Leon shifted to Reborn's hand, sensing his annoyance.

"BUT TSUNA-NII! TSUNA-NII!" it was then Lambo realized that Tsuna did not recognize him. Lambo had expected Tsuna's appearance to be different in advance, but he hadn't been told that Tsuna had no memories, having been born after the announcement.

Lambo stared at Tsuna like it was the end of the world. Vongola didn't know him. Was Tsuna-nii so tired of Lambo-san that he forgot him?

"Go-gokudera-shi…" Lambo turned to Hayato in pure horror. What if Gokudera-shi didn't know him too?

Hayato noticed Lambo's fear, it was hard not to. Pitying the cow, he took Lambo from Tsuna and began to gently rub the afro to calm him down.

Unfortunately, Hayato had forgotten the hammer space of Lambo's hair.

As Hayato rubbed his fingers through the curls, the 10 year bazooka flew out from nowhere. Hayato jerked back in surprise, saving him from being shot. Lambo was not as lucky.

There was a pink puff of smoke as everyone stared.

The smoke cleared revealing the TYL Lambo, in all his cow print glory. Older Lambo took one long glance at the scene and gave a long blink. "Huh? Wha? Where am I?" He looked at Hayato, then Takeshi, Reborn and then finally Tsuna. "Wha? What are you all doing here- Wait. When am I?" Turning to the wall, Lambo read the month off the calendar. "Eh? This early? I thought I already gave the bazooka to- OH SHOOT, I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS." Lambo screamed. "GAAAH GOKUDERA-SHI WILL KILL ME!"

He turned to Hayato. "GOKUDERA-SHI. THE 10 YEAR BAZOOKA. TAKE IT FAR, FAR AWAY FROM ME. MAKE SURE I NEVER USE IT. OH MY GOD! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING. WHY NOW OF ALL TIMES? I AM GOING TO DIE WHEN I GET BACK. WHAT IF MY YOUNGER SELF MESSES EVERYTHING UP!?"

Hayato looked at Lambo in surprise, slightly guilty. He dumbly nodded.

Takeshi laughed. "Maa maa Lambo, calm down. Were you in a meeting or something?"

Lambo froze then began to cry, pouring tears out like he was 5 years old. "I was in a very important meeting… I'm sorry. Lambo-san is sorry. LAMBO-SAN IS SORRY! WAAAAAH!" He grabbed Hayato's shirt and continued to wail.

They could not get any more information from the crying Lambo, who cried non-stop for the rest of the 5 minutes.

There was a second puff of smoke, and a solemn looking younger Lambo appeared. He looked lifeless, like he had just gone through hell and come back. Looking around the room briefly, he silently clenched Hayato's shirt. Everyone, even Reborn, gave Lambo his distance the rest of the day.

Poor confused Tsuna was forced to tell his mom that Lambo was going to live with them. He didn't even get an explanation on the 10 year bazooka.

* * *

For whatever reason, Lambo decided to be a hyperactive idiotic child around Tsuna, just like he was in the past. He even got into the habit of calling him "Dame-Tsuna" again.

Needless to say, Reborn was very quickly annoyed.

An annoyed Reborn meant an abusive Reborn. Moments later, Lambo found himself strapped into a Leon-cannon. Ignoring Lambo and Tsuna's protests, Reborn fired, releasing all of his stress momentarily.

...

And those were the circumstances in which Irie Shoichi found Lambo lying on his living room floor, surrounded by the broken glass of the sliding balcony door. Shoichi instantly ran over to Lambo as a blue canary, snickering to himself, flew out of the newly made hole. "Lambo! Are you alright?"

Lambo was very dizzy but unharmed otherwise. He wasn't a lightning rod for nothing. "...Sho-nii…?"

Giving a quick glance over Lambo's (lack of) injuries, Shoichi frantically nodded. "Yeah. Are you alright?"

"I think so..." Well all of his limbs can move properly at the very least. Lambo hit his head to get rid of the dizziness. Eh, he'll live. Then suddenly, Lambo shot up. "Sho-nii!"

Shoichi stumbled back in surprise, almost landing in the glass. "Yes?" It was either a very fast recovery or he didn't get injured at the slightest in the first place.

"The older Gokudera-shi told me to give this to you." Lambo pulled the 10 year bazooka out of his hair.

Shoichi took the bazooka apprehensively. "Ah… Thank you, Lambo." He lifted Lambo off the ground, carrying both the bazooka and kid into his room. He set the bazooka down on his bed gingerly, as if it was going to explode any moment.

"Hey Sho-nii," Lambo called. "Where are everyone else?" He looked around the room, remembering that Shoichi did not live alone. The room was also much cleaner than what he remembered. There wasn't a single wire or piece of scrap metal in sight. In fact, it looked like a completely normal room save the wall shelf of gizmos.

"My mom and sister are at my sister's high school. You came earlier than last time." Shoichi was writing a bill for the damages to the living room. He had been prepared for this it in advance. "Aren't the Bovinos late? Last time, they sent a crate of stuff not long after you crashed in."

Lambo gave a sheepish expression. "Last time my boss told me to come assassinate Reborn. This time I kind of ran away from home…"

"Oh…" Shoichi sweat dropped. Somehow, he wasn't all that surprised. "Well that's fine. I don't need to carry the heavy crate around this time then." Though it was a shame that he couldn't study the current Bovino's technology and weaponry.

"Sorry, Sho-nii… you'll need to pay for the damage…"

"Don't worry about it, Lambo. It's already paid for. All I need to do is the paperwork for it." He showed Lambo the file he was filling out. "We were expecting this after all." He pocketed the paper. He should send it off today before he forgets.

"Oh right," Shoichi rummaged through his desk and pulled out a green ring. "I made this lightning ring for you. It's around C-grade, I couldn't find better materials. Better than nothing, though."

Lambo took the ring and stuffed it in his hair. "Thanks Sho-nii, but I don't really need a ring. I use my horns more often than rings."

"I gave one to most of the other guardians as well. They don't need it either… think of it like backup. Who knows, you might use it one day." Shoichi shrugged. "Come here, Lambo, I'll bring you back home."

...

They stopped in front of the Sawada Residence. Shoichi rang the doorbell as the blue canary landed on the top of the brick fence beside them.

Tsuna came out seconds later. "Sol-nii! You're back? When did you come back?"

"I returned a few days ago." Shoichi handed child to Tsuna.

Blinking twice, Tsuna looked from Lambo to Shoichi and back again.

"Oh, Lambo is like my little brother."

Tsuna stared at the cow with widened eyes. "Lambo is part of the family?"

Shoichi nodded.

"Is Lambo strong?"

Patting Lambo's head the non-bomb-triggering way, Shoichi smiled. "Yes. Lambo is very strong. He is the Hibari-san type of strong."

"Ciaossu." Reborn appeared from nowhere.

"REBORN!" Tsuna shouted. "Don't use Lambo as a cannonball." He loudly complained.

Reborn ignored him. "Irie Shoichi, you know Tsuna?"

Shoichi nodded. "I work with Hibari-san and Tomiko-chan."

"Sol-nii is the student council president! People call him 'the King'." Tsuna excitedly announced.

A blink. Reborn looked at Shoichi, highly amused. "King?"

Shoichi turned as red as his hair.

"Sho-nii is the King?" Lambo peered at Shoichi, carefully holding in his laughter. What a nickname. For some reason, it reminded him of some sadistic trigger happy monster. The one that is not Reborn.

"I… I…" Shoichi flailed. "I need to go." He ran off. The canary flew off the wall after him and easily matched his pace. They distantly watched as Shoichi suddenly grab the bird out of the air and stuff it into his pocket, face glowing even redder than before. The bird probably laughed at him.

"Irie is Kaichou? Then why wasn't he at school?" Reborn asked Tsuna.

"Sol-nii was at Tokyo for a meeting for the past few days." Scratching his face, Tsuna muttered. "They are usually longer though. I guess it ended earlier this time."

"What about that bird?" Reborn never recalled Hibari having birds a shade of deep blue. Actually, he never recalled a colour other than yellow.

"Hmm? Oh, he is Toku-nee's... I think." A glance from Reborn got Tsuna to continue. "They are from Otogi-jisan. He was the person taking care of Toku-nee before he had to move away with his friends, so I think Toku-nee is probably taking care of them before he returns."

"Is he her relative?"

Tsuna pondered over this. "I think he is her uncle or something... but Toku-nee called him niichan... then again I don't really remember. It was so long ago." He sighed. "I miss Otogi-jisan..." Tsuna peered down at Lambo when he noticed something glittering. "You have bits of glass still stuck in your hair. I'll help you wash it."

Lambo's eyes widened. Nonono, that does not sound like a good idea at all. "Gyupa! Lambo-sama can take a bath by himself. Lambo-sama needs to empty out all of the grenades, candy-"

"You can't even reach most of your hair." Tsuna headed into the house, ignoring all forms of protest.


End file.
